Such a hand punch has the following disadvantages:.
(a) Of six possible punch positions (see FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,633) either two or four holes were punched in each case. Over a prolonged period the problem arose that two combinations of two can produce a combination of four if overpunched. Each waiter would like to have as high sales as possible, and it occurred that one waiter took a coding punch from another. If, for example, waiter No. 01 had sold an expensive bottle of cognac then waiter No. 11 is able to punch this overperforation so that the sales of waiter 01 are added to those of waiter 11. Because, however, the combination of twos also appears elsewhere in these combinations, it is impossible to demonstrate that waiter No. 11 has over-punched. It could just as well have been waiter No. 13 or 25.
(b) The fourth disadvantage of perforations in twos is that it cannot so readily be seen whether a field has already been punched so that it is possible to be mistaken. Not only can the waiter be mistaken, but it is also hardly possible for the customer to re-check correctly. At the same time, it has to be remembered that unhurried performance and very bright light are ruled out. The poor possibility of checking also stems from the fact that the combinations of two are badly situated spatially. For example, the 01 combination is situated on the diagonal and the 02 combination has the perforation situated unfavorably along the longitudinal edge.
(c) With the combination of twos and fours, one reaches only 30 waiters. Frequently, however, there are cases in which there are more than 50 serving employees.
(d) The known hand punch was recently patented by the Bundespatentgericht (Federal German Patent Court) as German Pat. No. 3,045,211.0-53. The locating pins 33, 34 mentioned in that patent specification have t enter locating holes 72, 75 before punching can be carried out so that the punchings can be situated in a system of rectangular coordinates. This is important for the tallying machine. Of course, the nearer the locating holes are situated to one another, the greater is the extent of tilting.
The known hand punch has a male-female perforation arrangement with planes oriented approximately parallel and opposite one another in a closed condition of the perforation hand punch. One of the planes has a first coding field with a multiplicity of punched holes, and the other plane has a coding field with a multiplicity of corresponding receiving holes for punch pins situated perpendicular to the plane. Two locating pins provided at a longitudinal edge of one of the coding fields.